Epicurus as a Forerunner of Utilitarianism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12227937 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Geoffrey Scarre (0000-0002-7327-2299, Durham University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 219-231 |
| Publication date | 1994-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Utilitas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0953-8208 • E-ISSN: 1741-6183 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0953820800001606 |
| OpenAlex | W2133463280 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 4 |
How original was the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham? In John Stuart Mill's opinion, not very original at all. Bentham maintained that pleasure and pain should provide our chief criteria of the moral quality of actions, because they are important above all other things in making our lives go well or ill. But two thousand years before Bentham defended the doctrine of utility that ‘all things are good or evil, by virtue solely of the pain or pleasure which they produce”, a gentle and cultivated man had taught in a garden at Athens that the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain were the most fitting objectives in the life of the wise man. The name of this sage, who endeavoured to provide in his own career an exemplar of his doctrine, was Epicurus of Samos. On Mill's reading of history, utilitarianism and Epicureanism were in essential respects the same
Aesthetics · Doctrine · Epicureanism · Epistemology · Jeremy bentham · Mill · Pain and pleasure · Pleasure · Political science · Reading (process · Theology · Utilitarianism · Virtue · Classical Philosophy and Thought · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1996 - 2017 (22) |
| Highly cited | No |